Funding

Partial / Stipend · Grant

Program dates

Jan 15, 2027 – Dec 15, 2027

Fellowship•Netherlands · Maastricht

Food Lab Fellowship

Jan van Eyck Academie

Application Deadline

Closed · June 4, 2026

Official Page

The Jan van Eyck Academie is a post-academy for art, design and reflection in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and it is taking one Food Lab Fellow for 2027. The residency runs from 15 January to 15 December 2027 and places the Fellow inside a working community of some 36 to 40 artists, designers, curators, writers and researchers. The academy is offering this Fellowship together with System Earth Science (SES), a Maastricht University group based in Venlo that studies how the Earth’s environmental systems support sustainable and healthy food production; the Fellow gets access to its research methods, analytical tools, food gardens and greenhouses. The Fellowship sits inside Institution(ing)s, a European cooperation project of eight art and cultural organisations across seven countries, co-funded by the European Union. The academy is looking for a practitioner whose work examines global food systems and the shared histories around food, and asks for sustainable and regenerative thinking rather than a finished plan. Work made during the year is shown at the academy’s Open Studios in October 2027.

Benefits & funding

  • Monthly stipend of €1,750 across the 11-month residency. The academy states that 80% of the stipend is exempt from income tax.
  • Annual working budget of €2,250 for the Fellow’s own project.
  • A private studio at the academy, plus the expertise and equipment of its Labs, including the Food Lab’s kitchen and food-preservation facilities.
  • No annual enrolment fee. Participants admitted through the academy’s general call pay €2,750 excluding VAT.
  • Access to System Earth Science in Venlo: research methodologies, analytical tools, and its food gardens and greenhouse facilities.
  • Local transport to and from Venlo, covered by Maastricht University up to €750.
  • Advisers, a curator and resident liaison, the academy library, and its Nature Research and Education departments.
  • A public outlet for the research: Open Studios in October 2027, and the collaborative programme of Institution(ing)s.
  • Not covered: housing. The Fellow finds and pays for their own accommodation, with guidance from the academy. Participants on the general residency track do get furnished housing, which is a different arrangement.

Eligibility

  • Open to artists and designers with a well-founded artistic practice in food-related research.
  • No art degree is required. The academy assesses the documentation of previous work, the project proposal and the motivation.
  • No age limits. The academy describes participants as ranging from their mid-twenties to their fifties.
  • Open to all nationalities. The academy files visa applications for selected participants who need one.
  • Enough English to work with fellow participants, staff and advisers.
  • Jan van Eyck alumni cannot apply. Alumni of the Rijksakademie or De Ateliers cannot apply either if they were enrolled there as full-time participants.
  • The Fellow must live in Maastricht or within a 10 km radius during the residency.
  • Applying costs €50 excluding VAT. The fee is waived for applicants from and living in the Least Developed Countries, Low Income Countries and Lower Middle Income Countries on the OECD DAC list, and for Palestinian artists.

Can you apply?

Open to all applicants

No nationality, residency, education, or experience limits are listed.

We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.

Application process

  1. 1
    Read the open call on the academy’s website and prepare the documents before starting the form.
  2. 2
    Submit the online application: personal details, a motivational letter and a project proposal of at most 500 words each, documentation of previous work of at most 15 pages with one to two images per page, and a CV of at most two pages.
  3. 3
    Pay the €50 excluding VAT application fee, or claim the waiver if the applicant is from and living in a qualifying DAC-list country.
  4. 4
    Apply by 4 June 2026, 23:59 CEST.
  5. 5
    A selection committee reviews the applications. The academy announces the selected candidate at the beginning of July 2026.
  6. 6
    The Fellow arranges accommodation in or near Maastricht and begins the residency on 15 January 2027.

Program timeline

  1. Application deadline

    4 June 2026, 23:59 CEST

  2. Selected candidate announced

    Beginning of July 2026

  3. Autumn 2026

    The academy’s general residency call opens for 2028, a separate route into the Food Lab

  4. Residency starts

    15 January 2027

  5. Work shown at the academy’s Open Studios

    October 2027

  6. Residency ends

    15 December 2027

  7. The academy publishes this as a single Fellowship for 2027 inside the Institution(ing)s project. No earlier edition of the Food Lab Fellowship is published, and no repeat has been announced.